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A tobacco company is the first to raise prices following last week’s emergency budget by a heart stopping 45 per cent.
Last week the Turkish Government announced increases in the special consumption tax on tobacco and other products.
The tax on tobacco went up 6 percent.
In our article “Booze, Tobacco , Mobile Phone and Car Tax all up In Suprise Turkish Mid Year Budget Hike“ we said that:
“smokers can expect prices to rise by more on their packet of twenty as manufacturers use the tax rises as an excuse to hide their own price rises.”
That expectation has come true according to a report in the Turkish Daily News who have reported that one manufacturer will raise prices by a massive 45 per cent.
Tobacco producer Phiilip Morris, purveyors of popular brands such as Marlboro, Parliament, L&M, Muratti, Lark, Bond Street, Chesterfield, Lider, plans to increase the price of a standard packet of 20 from 4.50 TL to 6.50TL and it’s premium brands such as Marlboro to 9TL.
Expect other manufacturers to follow suit.
It has also come to light that beer prices will also increase. The tax on a litre of beer – that’s TWO standard bottles – has gone up from 0.44 TL to 0.53 TL +20%. Again expect the manuafacturers to follow with their own increases.


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Government and non-government agencies should share data on market situation to create ‘competitive environment‘ for sustainable business, experts said.
They also underscored the importance of formulating ‘Competition Policy“ to foster economic growth in the country.
Competition Commission Bangladesh (CCB) Chairperson Mofizul Islam was present as chief guest while former Bangladesh Bank governor Prof Atiur Rahman presented the keynote paper in the meeting. Professor Enamul Haque of economics department at East West University made the address of welcome.
The government will formulate competition policy ‘very soon’ to bring transparency in business and make market sustainable, the competition commission chief said.
Mofizul Islam, also a senior secretary, mentioned that the gross domestic product would increase by at least 2 percent if the Competition Act, 2012 is properly implemented. He said the government is working together with all stakeholders in the market management to formulate a prudent policy and make the business environment sustainable.
Focusing on importance of transparency in public and private agency data, Prof Atiur Rahman mentioned that public and private agencies should utilise technology in data management to provide support to researchers for formulating policy according to the market demand.
“Around 80 percent of the country’s workforce is engaged in informal economy. The authorities should promote smaller initiatives through easy entry access to the market to tap the potentials of the informal economy in the country. The Competition Commission can play a vital role in promoting new entrepreneurship for fostering economy towards sustainable development,” Prof Atiur explained in keynote.
“There is no alternative to promoting new entrepreneurship to foster economic growth collectively. But we found reverse situation as the entry of new businesses is not satisfactory with the growing trend of economy,” Prof Enamul added.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Senior Research Fellow Nazneen Ahmed recommended exchanging ‘soft data’ among public private agencies to make pro-people policy for making the market sustainable.
Bangladesh Tariff Commission member Mostofa Abid Khan recommended setting up of an independent commission to supervise market for checking commodity price.
“The local and exported product ratio of the daily commodity is 60 percent and 40 percent respectively. However, we found that the market price became unstable within hours of any restriction announcement from the suppliers of imported products,” Dr Abid said.

domain: news


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Daimler, parent company of Mercedes-Benz and Smart, is reportedly considering starting a 50-50 joint-venture ride-hailing service with Chinese carmaker Geely.
Sources have told Bloomberg the ride-hailing system would be for the Chinese market.
Should the joint venture go ahead, the automakers face an uphill battle to gain significant market share from Didi Chuxing. Although dominant in China, the company is currently under regulatory pressure and is spending big to gain market share in other countries.
Li Shufu, founder and chairman of Geely, acquired a 9.69 per cent stake in Daimler in February this year, making him the largest single shareholder in the German automaker.
Daimler, like some other automakers, has already begun to diversify into mobility services, and currently operates the MyTaxi ride-hailing app, ViaVan ride-pooling service, and Car2Go short-term car hire platform.


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For every drone owner, it's hard to forget this harrowing video, in which a YouTube user named Zwier Spanjer plunged into freezing water to catch his new Phantom drone after it lost power mid-flight and dropped from the sky.
Although his story has a happy ending, there are other drone owners who don't. Luckily, there's solution for them: introducing the Splash Drone.
It's a quadcopter encased in a waterproof shell that can safely land and float on water without being damaged. A GoPro camera can be mounted on a waterproof gimbal so the drone can take pictures or video when it's fully submerged, a feature that was specifically created for the drone.
The drone also comes equipped with splashy features, including the ability to plug in a transmitter to beam live video up to a mile away from the pilot. It can also zip around the pilot autonomously via an app from a presumably non-waterproof Android app.
Since the project launched on Kickstarter yesterday, it quickly tallied up more than $10,000 in donations—more than half of the $17,500 it requested. An encouraging sign for the small drone maker, considering that one figure pegs the failure rate of Kickstarters at 56 percent.
Its creator, Alex Rodriguez from drone-maker Urban Drones told Motherboard that he expects the drone to appeal to "everyone," especially Phantom owners like sad ole' Spanjer.
"What happens when the Phantom's battery goes low is that it stops and lands whenever," he said, referencing the viral video. "So, if you happen to be flying over the water and it loses power, you're done. You'll never see it again."
Not anymore, at least not with the Splash Drone. He said it's been in development for several years and was inspired by his boating and fishing friends in South Florida, where he lives.
"They told me it would be cool to have a drone that floats. And that's how it all came about."
"They told me it would be cool to have a drone that floats," Rodriguez said, who has built other drones before. "And that's how it all came about."
A search on Kickstarter for "drones" reveals several dozen flying robots looking for funding. The Splash Drone is different, Rodriguez claims, in that the custom-built drone has been in testing for months now and is ready for mass production.
"There are other drones on Kickstarter that have been successful, but a lot of them are having issues," he told us. "That's normal for a new product, but I think the reason they're having issues is because they went to Kickstarter too soon."
He expects the Splash Drone to start delivery in mid-June with the donations pushing the drone into production. The retail price will be $1,199 a pledge of just $799 will get you one for cheaper.


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Leaders Reject U.S. Proposal on China Currency
president barack obama china currency yuan appreciate trade surplus undervaluing yuan g-20 u.s. proposal protectionist cbn news news cbnnews newsblock newsblockclip
China Undervaluing Currency for Trade Benefits?
China: US Proposal Threatens Global Recovery
U.S. Takes Tougher Trade Stance with China
Find out how one woman lost 150 pounds in less than a year. Plus, a Muslim convert seeking asylum...
Corbin Bernsen reveals the inspiration behind his latest true-to-life film. Plus, meet the family behind Saddleback Leather, the high-end...


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Last week, we somehow neglected to mention in an issue that was otherwise replete with stories of consolidation in the agri-business sector, that Afgri had announced that Mauritian-registered AgriGroupe Holdings had offered R2.6billion for their business. Afgri, as you know, are a diversified agricultural products business which began life as a good old-fashioned co-op, built by the state and commercial farmers, which listed in 1996 when all such businesses were disbanded. And this, say the African Farmers’ Association of South Africa (Afasa), is the problem with the deal. Afgri was built cheaply on public money, and now it is being offered cheaply for sale to an entity which is in effect a consortium of mainly American interests. As the largest owner of SA’s grain storage facilties, and providing services to 7,000 commercial farmers, many of them emerging, Afgri is a significant contributor to the wellbeing of the farming community.
Comment: Some heartening activism from a very influential quarter.


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China International Boat Shows (CIBS) 2015
From 09-April till 12-April, being the first dutch yachting company in China, AvalonYachts has shown up in CIBS 2015 in Shanghai. From the design of the boots stand to the brand new yachting concept, Avalon Yachts has attracted all the attention from media, business and the audience. Anneke Adema, the Consular General of The Netherland Embassy in Shanghai has visited the boots stand on 9-April and give her greetings. The government of Shaoxing Binhai New Area also visited the boots stand and met up with Anneke Adema. They have had a pleasant conversion regarding the future corporation between Shaoxing and Holland in the area of yachting industry and yachting culture in order to develop Shaoxing as “The Water city of Southern China”. AvalonYachts has made the first step for the dutch yachts in the Chinese market!


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“Impaired or failing memory as we get older is one of life’s major inconveniences. Scientists have known of the potential benefits of diets rich in fresh fruits for a long time.”
—Jeremy Spencer, PhD Professor of Molecular Nutrition University of Reading
The medical research community has known for a long time that flavanoids have some kind of effect on memory, but until recently, researchers didn’t know the potential mechanisms to account for the phenomenon. Matt Whiteman, PhD, a principal investigator at the Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Science, Peninsula Medical School, worked with Dr. Jeremy Spencer on recent research and states, “This study not only adds science to the claim that blueberries are good for you, it also provides support to a diet-based approach that could potentially be used to increase memory capacity and performance in the future.” Their work was published this year in the scientific journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine.
If whole foods—specifically fruits and vegetables with antioxidants—are the answer to combating damaging free radicals that cause brain cell death, what about supplements and food replacement products? The American Dietetic Association has reaffirmed the principle of getting appropriate nutrients and vitamins from whole-food sources whenever possible. It might be easier to buy a bottle of supplements or a “vitamin-rich” drink product, but it is best to avoid those options and go shopping on the perimeter of the local grocery store whenever possible.
For people with limitations that prevent biting, chewing, swallowing, and digesting whole foods, supplements are certainly a viable option. But the average adult should buy and eat whole foods whenever possible. Nutritionists concur that this applies to people over the whole lifespan—not just during the developmental years.
At Touchmark, there are numerous opportunities to enjoy food and participate in social activities. It’s never too late to make good dietary choices that support active aging.


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Chanda Kochhar ranked 4th in Fortune magazine's global list of top-50 women business leaders
ICICI Bank CEO and MD, Ms Chanda Kochhar has been ranked 4th in Fortune magazine’s global list of top-50 women business leaders. The list is topped by Brazilian energy giant Petrobras’ CEO, Maria Das Gracas Foster.
Other Indians making it to the list were:-
– National Stock Exchange chief Ms Chitra Ramkrishna (17th)
– Axis Bank’s CEO Ms Shikha Sharma (32nd)
– HSBC’s Country Head of India, Ms Naina Lal Kidwai (42nd)
What is KV Kamath Committee?
The Reserve Bank of India had constituted a five-member expert committee under KV Kamath. He was the...
How is the satellite data used for Farm credit assessment by banks?
Indian multinational banking and financial services provider ICICI Bank has announced that it is goi...
ICICI Bank launches self-service delivery facility
Leading Private lender of India, ICICI Bank recently launched a unique self-service delivery facilit...
Cardless Cash Withdrawal from ATM launched by ICICI Bank
Mumbai based India’s leading Private sector multinational bank, ICICI bank has launched a card-les...
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) First Indian Company to exceed Rs 10 Lakh Crore M-cap
The largest publicly traded multinational conglomerate company in India in terms of market capitaliz...
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ACTE is excited to announce the Travel Programme CEO award! Exclusively designed by ACTE, this unique award recognizes the integral role that Travel Managers play in contributing to the success of their organizations. Industry professionals now have the opportunity to nominate Travel Managers from around the world who run their own corporate travel programmes like a CEO.
We are looking for individuals with corporate travel responsibility who align the goals of their travel programme to the overall goals of their company, resulting in better engagement and support to the traveler.
Please take a minute to consider your peers, clients and colleagues with responsibility for a corporate travel programme, who display a diverse set of qualities including leadership, innovation, a keen focus on the traveller, and a willingness to give back to the industry.
Nominations will be reviewed by a panel of industry experts and the winner will be announced at the ACTE-CAPA London Global Summit (11-13 October).


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Tui has pledged to donate £25,000 to Abta LifeLine’s appeal to support Thomas Cook staff affected by the firm’s collapse.
Derek Jones, chair of Abta LifeLine and chief executive of Der Touristik UK, said at least £100,000 would be required to meet the initial requests the charity has received from former Thomas Cook employees desperately in need of support.
Kuoni has donated £5,000, while Midcounties Co-operative and Classic Collection have both pledged £1 for every employee. Travel Weekly has pledged to donate £10 per employee in support of the appeal.
Other brands to donate include Icelolly.com, Azamara, Royal Caribbean International, Travelopia, Arosa, Inspiretec, Barbados Tourism, Iglu.com, dnata Travel.
Speaking at Abta’s Travel Convention, Jones urged bosses of travel companies to support “in any way [they could]” to help “many former colleagues now reliant on food banks” and those not lucky enough to secure new jobs quickly.
Within hours Abta delegates had donated £55,000.
“We’re a small charity with limited fund,” he said. “And we need you to help support our Thomas Cook appeal and based on the number of people who have contacted us so far we believe we need to raise around £100,000 and that is just to meet the initial requests we’ve had.”
Jones said the charity has been offering emergency financial assistance and supermarket food vouchers to those in need. The charity has also worked with Citizens Advice in Manchester to set up a dedicated hotline offering advice on how to claim relevant benefits.
“Not everyone has something to fall bank on,” Jones added. “And that’s why LifeLine is here.”
Speaking to Travel Weekly last week, Abta LifeLine’s director Trudie Clements described the collapse of Thomas Cook as an unprecedented “human crisis”, adding that they had been flooded with enquiries from staff needing help.
Donations to Abta LifeLine can be made here.
This is a community-moderated forum.
All post are the individual views of the respective commenter and are not the expressed views of Travel Weekly.
By posting your comments you agree to accept our Terms & Conditions.


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GETTING GREEN: Investors think chewable food is overrated. Or at least that is what can be gleaned from the news that downtown L.A. food tech company Soylent raised $20 million in a Series A funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz, to expand operations. Soylent makes a functional powder out of vitamins and nutrients that can be used to replace actual food. It has thrived in the tech sector, where coders loathe leaving their machines for distractions such as chewing. Orders of Soylent have been subject to notoriously long delays, so the company plans to use its new green to improve its manufacturing operations.
DIS-HONEST: Jessica Alba’s $1 billion non-toxic beauty company Honest Co. received a cease and desist letter from Cosmedicine of Sherman Oaks, claiming that Honest Co.’s face and body lotion was suspiciously similar to Cosmedicine’s “Honest Face” tinted moisturizer. Cosmedicine demanded that Honest Co. stop operating under its brand name. The Santa Monica company responded by taking the dispute to court, claiming the two products would never be confused since they target different consumers with their price points. Honest Co.’s lotion retails for $9.95 while Cosmedicine’s moisturizer sells for $75. Honest Co.’s suit also pointed out that Cosmedicine had ceased sales in late 2012, and only re-launched its line after Honest Co.’s brand was established. Honest Co. also stressed that while Cosmedicine holds a trademark for “Honest Face,” the mark only applies to skin “moisturizer,” and its product is marketed as a “lotion.”
ACQUIRED: Plaza Bank in Irvine reached an agreement to acquire El Segundo lender Bank of Manhattan in the region’s first bank merger of 2015. Manhattan shareholders will have the right to receive either $5.59 in cash or 1.2 shares of Plaza stock in exchange for each Manhattan share. The cash consideration will apply to up to 3.8 million Manhattan shares. Both Plaza Bank and Bank of Manhattan are controlled by Carpenter & Co., a bank-focused private equity firm in Irvine.
SNAPPED UP: West Hollywood dating app Tinder made its first acquisition, scooping up startup Chill, the maker of Snapchat-like mobile messaging app Tappy. Chill and Tappy will shut down as part of the deal, meaning Tinder’s purchase probably has less to do with the actual app than it does the software and the team behind it. That team includes co-founders Dan Gould and Brian Norgard, who are buddies and former colleagues of Sean Rad, Tinder’s chief executive who will soon be stepping back to serve as president. The acquisition will likely build out Tinder’s photo posting feature, called Moments, allowing users to start conversations with their matches by sending them real-time photos. This will prevent Tinder users from toggling between the Tinder app and Snapchat when they want to send potential companions bathroom selfies.
MANN ENOUGH: There will be less Mann in MannKind Corp., now that 89-year-old founder Alfred Mann is stepping back. Mann appointed Hakan Edstrom, the company’s president and a member of the board, to take over as of chief executive of the Valencia inhaled insulin company. The change comes as French pharmaceutical company Sanofi prepares to begin selling MannKind’s inhaled insulin drug, Afrezza, this year.
THE LOO: A West Hollywood law took effect that requires all single-stall restrooms in businesses and public places to be gender-neutral, meaning they cannot be restricted to a specific sex by “signage, design or installation of fixtures.” Businesses will have 60 days to comply by replacing existing signs. The law is intended to making restrooms more welcoming to transgender and gender nonconforming people, people with disabilities who require personal attendants, and parents with children of a different gender.
BIG FINE: State Insurance Commissioner David Jones fined Mercury Insurance $27.5 million for collecting illegal auto insurance fees from consumers. Between 1999 and 2004, the company’s insurance agents charged unapproved fees on more than 180,000 transactions, violating Proposition 103, which requires auto insurers to get approval from the insurance commissioner on all rates, the California Department of Insurance said. Mercury, part of Los Angeles insurer Mercury General Corp., responded that it intends to challenge the fine in court. It is one of the largest fines ever levied against an auto or home insurer in California.
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Residents in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles were left confused and surprised as they began receiving food deliveries they had not ordered.
Some restaurants and Uber Eats drivers were also affected by the mystery, as they prepared deliveries for people who had not requested them.
The deliveries only ceased after The LA Times reported on them.
Residents along Range View and neighboring streets reported receiving dozens of deliveries over two weeks, with various food items from different establishments.
Some worried it was a scam and did not eat the food, while others donated the deliveries to the homeless in the neighborhood.
The orders provided no clues, with different names and drivers each time, but theories abound about who is behind the mystery.
Uber Eats has launched an investigation into the source of the unwanted orders and has taken action against several accounts.


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While business customers haven’t begun spending like it’s 2021 all over again, their outlook and their outlays have both improved to the point where they’re no longer “cutting off limbs” or committing other “unnatural acts” to meet draconian budget cuts, says Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman.
Always a colorful speaker unafraid to use blunt language to make his points, Slootman was contrasting the extreme cost-cutting measures undertaken by many businesses over the past couple of years with a new but still measured sense of confidence and spending commitments that arose during Snowflake’s fiscal Q2, which ended July 31.
In more prosaic terms, Snowflake continues to “execute in an unsettled macro environment but with incremental improvement in general sentiments and engagement,” Slootman said on last week’s earnings call.
Snowflake CFO Mike Scarpelli outlined the upturn in spending this way: “Consumption was in line with our expectations for the quarter. In May, we saw a return to growth with strength continuing into June and July. From a booking standpoint, we saw promising signs of stabilization with new bookings outperforming our expectations.”
But Scarpelli also emphasized that he views the current state as one of “stabilization” rather than full “recovery.”
Decline in ‘Unnatural Acts‘
Despite those repeated notes of caution from both Scarpelli and Slootman, it was apparent from various Slootman comments during the call that a huge shift in mindset has occurred among many Snowflake customers as they begin to once more invest heavily in the data technologies, cloud-based data services, and broad data-centric capabilities that are essential to success in the digital economy.
“We’ve really seen a sort of a sentiment change from the earlier quarters where people were sort of trying to cut off their limbs to fit within budgetary constraints and all this kind of stuff,” Slootman said in describing the shift.
“And that’s where you see unnatural acts to save money. That has really subsided considerably, and the conversation has really gone back to where it historically has been: ‘We want to do these applications, these workloads, these migrations.’ And we’re pushing the boundaries on the much more sophisticated use cases in machine learning. And obviously people want to understand how do I deploy a large language model on a Snowflake platform,” Slootman said during the Q&A portion of the call.
“And we’re super excited about how that’s unfolding for us and our customers.”
That new customer mindset on tech spending — unquestionably sparked by CEO-level belief in the transformative power of generative AI (GenAI) — has also been recently reflected in strong quarterly results from Microsoft, Google Cloud, SAP, ServiceNow, and Workday. And I expect that when Oracle releases its fiscal-Q1 numbers in a couple of weeks, its results will also reflect very strong demand from business customers who realize they cannot sit on the sidelines during the GenAI revolution.
Slootman underscored that attitude when an analyst asked him if the uptick in spending was more a function of salespeople being more effective at selling rather than customers deciding it’s time to boost investments.
“Look, it’s not the sales team — there’s really been a change in how customers are engaging,” Slootman said.
“A couple of quarters ago, like I said earlier, people were doing unnatural acts to force themselves into an inflexible spending envelope, and they were doing it almost regardless of consequence.
“The fixation on that reset — we obviously felt that,” he said.
“The change in sentiment is that that has passed. We are now, sort of, ‘Okay, we’re comfortable with the path that we’re on, and we’re talking again about our projects and migrations and use cases, and we’re trying to basically get a grip on deploying large language models, and what all do we have to do with data, with our infrastructure, answering governance questions, and so on,’ ” Slootman said.
“So in other words, the sentiment is very constructive and engaging on core data strategy. And that’s a big, big change from where we were a couple of quarters ago.”
Key Q2 Numbers for Snowflake
- Product revenue was up 37% to $640 million;
- Q3 guidance: Product revenue is expected to rise between 28% and 29% to $670 million to $675 million for the 3 months ending Oct. 31; and
- full fiscal-year 2024, product-revenue is expected to be $2.6 billion, which would represent growth of 34%.
Gain insight into the way Bob Evans builds and updates the Cloud Wars Top 10 ranking, as well as how C-suite executives use the list to inform strategic cloud purchase decisions. That’s available exclusively through the Acceleration Economy Cloud Wars Top 10 Course.


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KwaZulu-Natal will see around 1 million visitors enter the province this festive season, MEC for Economic Development, Tourism & Environmental Affairs, Sihle Zikalala said the launch of the province’s festive season plans at the Elangeni Hotel in Durban.
This year’s campaign is titled, Durban Summer Love.
"KwaZulu-Natal is ready to welcome travellers to our shores over the festive season.
"From Kosi Bay to Port Edward, we are set to offer an unforgettable 2018 holiday season," he said.
He said Drakensberg, Isimangaliso Wetland Park and the Midlands should be on everyone's travel bucket list.
Optimistic to draw in about a million travellers to Durban's shore this year, Zikalala said they hoped to attract 850 000 domestic visitors and 150 000 international visitors.


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Norwegian cruises asks judge to nix DeSantis’ ban on vaccine passports
The third-largest cruise company in the world asked a federal judge Tuesday to overturn a new Florida law that bars companies from requiring cruise passengers provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination, escalating the industry’s battle with Governor Ron DeSantis.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is suing Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, arguing that the law prevents the company from operating safely by unnecessarily putting cruise passengers and crew members at risk of contracting the virus. The company plans to restart cruises on its ships from Florida ports on Aug. 15 and require all passengers be vaccinated.
The company asked the judge to lift the ban by Aug. 6 and called its ability to require proof of vaccination from passengers “a matter of life and death.” The Florida law allows the state to fine businesses $5,000 each time they require a patron to provide COVID-19 vaccination information.
The lawsuit is an escalation in the ongoing feud between DeSantis and the powerful cruise industry. Previously, when DeSantis said he would not create an exception to the new law for cruise companies, Norwegian CEO Frank Del Rio threatened to move his cruise ships out of Florida. The company reiterated that stance in Tuesday’s court filing: “The only way NCLH could maintain its protocols and operations as currently planned is by abandoning Florida altogether.”
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is parent to cruise brands Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas. Miami-Dade County spent $263 million on a new terminal for Norwegian at PortMiami that was completed last year. In the legal filing, Del Rio said the company plans to restart cruises from Florida ports on 15 ships through the fall and winter.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all cruise passengers be vaccinated, but does not require it. Under the agency’s regulations, ships that don’t have at least 95% of passengers and crew vaccinated have to first perform two-day test cruises.
Last month, a federal judge in Tampa ruled that the CDC’s cruise regulations cannot remain in place after Sunday in a case brought by DeSantis. The CDC’s appeal is pending with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. In new court filings Tuesday, Norwegian voiced its support for the CDC’s appeal with the 11th Circuit.
“Ironically, the only impediment to NCLH safely sailing as planned is currently posed by Florida, not CDC,” the company said in its brief.
Christina Pushaw, press secretary for the governor’s office, said in an email that Norwegian and the CDC are discriminating against children and others who cannot or choose not to get vaccinated. The Federal Drug Administration has only approved COVID-19 vaccine use for children 12 years old and older.
“Florida already fought and won its case so that Norwegian and all other cruise lines can invite and serve all Americans on its vessels,” she said. “But apparently Norwegian prefers the shackles of the CDC to the freedom offered by Florida.”
Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises have already restarted cruises from Florida ports this summer with varying vaccine policies. Spokespeople for Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Group, parent company of Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.


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Apple Inc. may begin transitioning its flagship iPod models away from hard disk drive (HDD)-based storage and towards solid-state NAND flash memory by the end of year.
"We believe that the video iPod transition from 1.8-inch hard disk drives to NAND flash memory may occur as soon as late 2007," Tortora wrote. "Our checks indicate that Apple is considering canceling its next generation HDD-based iPod design, with the form factor refresh involving a move to NAND flash memory."
The analyst said such a move would be consistent with Appleâs penchant for placing user experience ahead of cost concerns. He also noted that recent history supports the scenario, given the economics of a similar transition where Apple in late 2005 decided to move from the 1-inch hard drive based iPod mini to the NAND flash based iPod nano.
"Flash memory is clearly more expensive on a $/GB basis than hard disk drives," he wrote. "However, the late 2005 Nano transition to flash provides a guide as to the point at which the previously mentioned non-cost advantages of flash memory outweigh the cost premium."
Given that he sees flash storage capacities up to 32GB as being cost-feasible for the initial introduction of a new flash-based video iPod later this year, Tortora said the question becomes whether or not 32GB contains sufficient capacity to store video content.
"Apple currently offers 30GB and 80GB HDD-based models, and will have the option to increase storage capacity up to 120GB this year based on new perpendicular recording technology," he wrote. "While the higher capacities would allow for more video storage, we view battery life as the key consideration for a move to flash."
Tortora explained that a 30GB of HDD-based iPod is sufficient for around 40 hours of video content, but only has about 3.5 hours of battery life for video playback. He added that replacing the hard drive with flash memory would allow for an increase of about 60 percent in battery life to 5.5 hours of video playback.
In addition to the flash-based storage, the Prudential analyst believes other specifications of Appleâs next generation video iPod are will include a wider touch screen similar to that of iPhone, Wi-Fi to enable the transfer of digital content from Apple TV, and GPS functionality.
Tortora asserted that the addition of GPS functionality "should position the iPod as the central hub for all digital content (music, movies, GPS) in automobiles."
Indeed, one of the first reports on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard published by AppleInsider affirmed that the next-generation Apple OS would introduce a geographic mapping solution, dubbed "Maps," that would employ GPS functionally.
A second report, believed to be extremely accurate at the time of publication, cited people familiar with the software as saying Apple may eventually leverage the technology to help track stolen Macs or iPods.
Apple has yet to disclose the extent of Leopard's feature set, choosing instead to keep several enhancements "top secret" until a date closer to the software's release.


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Kevin Rice, head of Mazda’s European design operation, has elected to leave the company to pursue other endeavors, the company announced today. It is the second time Rice has stepped down from his role at the Japanese automaker.
Rice, who was named design director of Mazda’s European design studio shortly after re-joining the company as creative director in 2013 – following a 13-year leave of absence from the company – replaced
Mazda’s European design chief Peter Birtwhistle to work alongside Ikuo Maeda.
Over the course of the last five years, he has been instrumental in pushing forward the Japanese carmaker’s ‘Kodo’ design ethos, most recently showcased on the Mazda Vision Coupe and the Mazda Kai concept cars, the latter said to preview the forthcoming Mazda3 replacement.
Rice, a Coventry University graduate, initially joined the Japanese firm as a senior designer in 1995, working on projects such as the RX-8 and the 1999 Neospace show car. He’s also worked at BMW, where he was responsible for the exterior development of many models including the current 3 and 4 Series. The British national also honed his skills working at Italdesign in Italy and Opel in Germany, where he began his design career in 1986.
Most recently Rice was working closely with TJ Nakamuta, chief designer for Mazda’s design studios in Yokohama and Hiroshima, Japan, Mazda’s North American design director, Julien Montousse, and advanced design director Yasushi Nakamuta.
“As part of the global Mazda design group, Kevin has led a team in Europe who have made significant contributions to the success of our business both in Europe and globally,” President of Mazda Motor Europe, Jeff Guyton, said in a statement. “We will miss his energy and passion and wish him every success in the next stage of his career.”
Mazda has not yet named a successor to the European design chief role.
Founded in 2012, Form Trends tirelessly covers the automotive design industry in all corners of the globe to bring you exclusive content about cars, design, and the people behind the products.


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LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwire) -- 03/15/13 -- A tough economic climate has changed the shape of retail and the way in which customers shop - as well as having a considerable effect on retail technology innovations, says leading technology company Synqera. Although there has been a string of high street casualties in recent years, the fact that retailers have had to become much more savvy in their approach to attract and retain customers has played an important role in retail innovations - an area which has really evolved.
Some real game-changers have included new methods of payment, such as NFC payment, analytics of shopper behaviour and location-based services, enabling retailers to track a customer's journey. The evolution in retail technology has been rapid and sustained, and in a multi-channel era where social media and mobile commerce are part of shoppers' buying habits, the in-store experience is also making a real come-back and gaining the focus of retailers once more.
Kirill Gorynya, CEO of Synqera, comments: "While for some retailers the economic situation will have caused their downfall, it has also been the catalyst for some great retail innovations, which have been instrumental in changing the way we shop forever.
"Customer loyalty schemes have to be one of the biggest advents in the last decade, along with online retail, but there is a real sense now of moving communication between retailer and consumer back in-store, combining real-time communications with enhancement of customer experience which have a real impact on customer loyalty."
While Big Data is a huge consideration for retailers, who are busy gathering insights through their loyalty schemes, using this to best advantage by combining with other intelligent solutions is the key to tapping further into the customer's actual preferences.
Kirill added: "The innovations of the last five years in the retail technology arena have been great - who would ever have thought customers could walk into a major store and access a self-serve payment terminal? The future, I think, could be even more exciting, as retailers take what has worked in the online retail arena with real-time targeting according to customer preferences, offline and in-store."
Synqera has recently launched a solution for retailers to help them achieve heightened customer engagement at intrinsic points throughout the store such as the cash desk or store entrance. The Synqera software platform can be applied to third party devices and interfaces, where it can be integrated into current infrastructure and existing customer loyalty schemes. It is also available on Simplate - Synqera's intuitive POS terminal, which also acts as an in-store advertising point and is NFC-enabled for contactless payment, has a magstripe-reader, a touch screen, a camera and microphone for capturing physical information, such as a smile. In addition to contactless payment, emerging mobile wallet and online systems, such as Paypal are supported.
For further information about Synqera and the SIMPLATE platform, visit www.synqera.com.
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An iconic moment for the Australian fashion house
We can’t all afford to own a Brett Whiteley piece, but I think we’ve just found the next big thing.
Local Sydney brand, Aje, has collaborated with the Brett Whiteley Studio to create a collection comprising of about 60 looks, which uses prints of five Brett Whiteley works, including Woman in Bath (1963) and The Blossom Tree (1970).
This was the first time a fashion label has approached the art studio about using Brett's works for fashion.
"It's such a special thing to buy into this," designer Adrian Norris said. "You're buying fashion but you're also buying into a piece of Australian art history."
Please credit @azfilesofficial and @adam_stanley_photos when posting
Stay tuned for more backstage here:


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Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QS appears to be priced at CNY 14,862 (roughly Rs. 1,67,000).
Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 appears to be getting an upgrade with Ryzen 5000-series processor. The new gaming laptop model has been spotted on Amazon China website with model number GA503QS. Asus launched the last ROG Zephyrus G15 laptop at CES 2020 in January 2020. It came with AMD’s Ryzen 7 4800HS CPU. Asus is likely to continue the trend and bring the new ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QS at CES 2021 next week. The gaming laptop is expected to come along with a range of new computing devices by the Taiwanese company.
As spotted by My Laptop Guide, the details of Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QS have surfaced on Amazon China. The e-commerce platform appears to have updated the listing to hide its price, though the publication captured its screenshot for reference.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QS price (expected)
The screenshot shared by My Laptop Guide suggests that Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QS price has been set at CNY 14,862 (roughly Rs. 1,67,000). It is likely to be officially announced at Asus’ launch event at CES 2021 that is taking place at 9am PT (10:30pm IST) on January 13.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QS specifications (expected)
Apart from the pricing, the Amazon China listing has suggested some of the key specifications of Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QS. The laptop is listed with Ryzen 7 5800HS processor, along with Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. This could have either 8GB or 16GB graphic memory. The machine also seems to have 16GB of RAM (a combination of 8GB integrated and 8GB removable) as well as 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD storage.


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SHANGHAI — Alibaba held its full fiscal year growth forecast at 48 percent during its first-quarter earnings announcement Thursday.
First-quarter net profit slid 75 percent as the company reported one-off gains in the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, revenue growth for the quarter ending June 30 of 59 percent beat market expectations, coming despite a broader economic slowdown in China and weaker consumer indicators over the first half of 2016, and surpassing the 39 percent revenue growth recorded in the previous quarter.
This growth was attributed partly to an increase in core commerce customers, with annual active users rising to 434 million from 423 million last quarter. Alibaba said these customers drove GMV [gross merchandise value] up 24 percent to $126 billion.
Another major factor driving growth is mobile, with mobile GMV accounting for 75 percent of the total GMV and mobile monetization overtaking the value of PC for the first time.
“I still remember during the IPO roadshow everyone wanted to know if it was possible for mobile take rate to exceed PCs, so today I am happy to report the mobile take rate has exceeded PCs, which is an important milestone. We have completed a successful mobile transition,” said chief financial officer Maggie Wu.
Data driven personalization and in the inclusion of social elements and content such as live-stream video into Alibaba’s Taobao app saw it draw more customers and keep them coming back, with the average active user accessing the app seven times every day.
“If people come more, they discover more and this gives a higher likelihood of final sales. This is one of the main reasons for the continued acceleration of GMV growth,” said Daniel Zhang, Alibaba’s chief executive officer.
“We are capturing the imagination of today’s generation of young consumers. Seventy-five percent of users on the Taobao app are below 35 years of age,” added Alibaba Group executive vice chairman Joe Tsai.
Management revealed that Alibaba would continue its focus on rural and global expansion.
“Even for the core marketplace business we have great potential, if you look at the global, as well as rural expansion and the growth of FMCG and supermarket segments,” Wu said.
As well as its cross-border activity, which Tsai describes as a “very big part” of Alibaba’s global efforts, this quarter Alibaba acquired a controlling interest in Southeast Asia e-commerce company Lazada. “That’s going to be a very important potential market for us, a market with more than 500 million potential consumers. We have started to integrate that business this past quarter and that integration is going very well,” Tsai added.
Other future areas of focus are digital entertainment — spearheaded by Alibaba’s Youku acquisition — as well as the company’s cloud computing arm, which saw revenue growth of 156 percent on the year, driven by the increase in paying customers to 577,000. The division is coming close to breaking even, according to Wu.
“The entire IT sector in China is a $200 billion opportunity, including hardware and software. If we say 20 percent of that sector will eventually be on the cloud, that’s $40 billion but that’s way into the future,” Tsai explained.
“We are at a stage were we have generated $187 million in cloud computing this quarter and that’s still very small in relation to the size of the market. We are in it for the very, very long game. In the last quarter we launched 319 products in cloud and that is a pace no one can match,” he added.
Despite strong growth for the quarter ending June 30, recent news hasn’t all been positive for Alibaba. Late last week Zhang Mao, the head of China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce [SAIC], said in a television interview with a Hong Kong-based network that Alibaba, and specifically the company’s founder Jack Ma, should be doing more to crackdown on counterfeit products on the company’s platforms.
“I’ve repeatedly told Jack Ma that he is not in the land of outlaws and he should take the primary responsibility,” Zhang said on TV.
In May, it emerged that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Alibaba’s accounting practices, including how the company accounts for its investment into the logistics provider Cainiao Network and how it reports operating data from Singles Day.


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The news: China’s manufacturing activity dipped to a five-month low after Shanghai and other key industrial centers shut down in an effort to contain coronavirus outbreaks, per the Associated Press.
Why it’s worth watching: News of China’s manufacturing slowdown is causing ripple effects in various businesses. Global stocks slipped yesterday as a result of the news.
- China locked down its financial and manufacturing capital Shanghai earlier this week, the biggest pandemic-related closure since the lockdown in Wuhan at the start of the outbreak.
- Beijing is scrambling to enforce its COVID-Zero strategy, which combines staggered lockdowns while mandating vaccines and boosters.
- Access to manufacturing hubs Changchun and Jilin in the northeast has similarly been suspended, resulting in the closure of factory campuses and car factories, per MarketWatch.
- Shanghai recorded 5,298 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, per Yahoo News, up from a previous-record 3,450 asymptomatic cases Sunday.
- “COVID-19 infections are growing day by day at a rapid pace, ratcheting up pressure on the city’s public health system," said Wu Qianyu, a senior official with Shanghai Health Commission, in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
The problem: With various supply chains already stretched thin by the war in Ukraine, pandemic-related shutdowns in China could lead to more serious shortages of raw materials, chips, smartphones, PCs, EV components, and more.
- The repercussions of factory shutdowns will be global in scale and possibly compounded by the uncertainty of the latest omicron-variant outbreaks in China.
- If Beijing is unable to contain the spread, we can expect wider lockdowns for longer periods of time.
- “It’s going to be really bad,” said Daniel Stanton, a professor of marketing at Bradley University in an interview with Fortune. “When we’re talking about goods coming out of China, it’s not just the finished products we buy directly, but it’s also a lot of parts that are crucial to manufacturing other things that we buy, too.”
What’s next? Businesses relying heavily on Chinese manufacturing will have to adjust their expectations or try to find alternative solutions.
- Tesla extended the suspension of its Shanghai gigafactory as it considers a closed-loop system in which its workers are kept in a bubble and tested frequently.
- Foxconn, the biggest assembler of Apple iPhones, told the Wall Street Journal that it was shifting production from Shenzhen to factories elsewhere in China that haven’t been locked down just to keep up with demand.


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There is a new law waiting to be authorized by President Bush that has been presented to Our elected representatives that is definitely holding the $12 million online gambling industry by simply a line. It presents itself that Tn Senator Invoice Frist, unveiled the costs upon Wednesday by subscribing to this to the Free from danger Port Take action before Congress took it is election recess in December.
The Against the law Internet Gambling Enforcement Take action that is supposed to turn out to be signed by Director Bush, will practically finish off all online gambling sites simply by making it illegal for any loan provider, credit credit company or on the internet settlement system to approach any kind of payments being made to help online gambling companies.
The new laws states the fact that Online Gambling sites are now banned from accepting any type of test, credit card as well as electrical transfer payments to get world wide web gaming in the US and even seriously puts often the industry inside chaos.
Astonished at the driving associated with this new debilitating regulation, the leaders in typically the online poker industry took drastic steps and started out to advantage stock with the London Stock market which often erased $8 million via the field. 하키중계 , the world’s major online casino web page said that that they would cease their particular scarves with the 920, 500 active US customers they have only when Bush truly signs the new work.
Although the new law hasn’t yet recently been autographed, the industry is currently being drastically affected. PartyGaming’s stocks alone have lowered 60% ending up with a measly. 81 pence the share. Other internet sites like SportingBet and 888 Holding were also affected by simply the change and possess due to the fact lost the bundle of money in their shares. 888 Filling with, for example, had a 48% decrease on their very own shares dropping them decrease to $1. 40 with the British Market plus announced that it was going to will no longer proceed its online gambling enterprise in the United Expresses.
This isn’t the very first Act, however, that offers given the federal government power to be able to break down the on the web gambling industry. Under this 1961 Cable Act, the federal government has the to brake down on the web wagering in sports, texas holdem and various casino games that will are considered to be illegal beneath the law.
This really is very seriously debilitating the market sectors economic climate because the US purchaser market is responsible for 50-60% from the on-line casino revenue. All these essential laws against the on the net playing site owners are pressuring companies to shut decrease or move out yet what’s distinct is that they are no more time welcome in the United States.
The Madam Chairman from the Interactive Video games Council, File suit Schneider, possesses predicted the fact that over 5 hundred companies working around a couple of, 300 online gambling sites close to the world will be going through annihilation and may most likely get wiped out of the sector all together. The small variety of companies that will control to live through this specific amazing crisis will possess to live with a huge cut back with their profits and figure out new ways connected with growing again. The plan of opening up in the Asian market offers grow to be a favored idea for most.


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It's that time of the year when we all start to look for new winter items for our wardrobe and for many shoppers this means a trip to Primark.
The budget retailer has been filling its Instagram feed with new season items including winter boots, coats and more. But its latest post has caught the attention of more than 70,000 shoppers.
Taking to its Instagram last night, Primark shared an outfit idea featuring a £15 cream jumper which has left many in disbelief.
The jumper was shown alongside a pair of black leggings and nude slip on shoes. Underneath the post, fans were quick to comment how they couldn't believe the jumper was from Primark, arguing it looks more expensive than £15.
Others hailed the items as "unreal", "stunning" and even winter "goals".
Another shopper also pointed out the jumper is "just like" ones sold by high street store Zara.
Among the rest of the comments, one user said: "Another one for this shopping list on Tuesday"
Another added: "We need another Primark trip"
And a third said: "How nice is this jumper".
To find the latest news where you live, enter your postcode below:
This isn't the first time Primark has caused excitement among shoppers in the last few weeks. Last month, Primark's £20 jacket was being hailed as the "best blazer around".


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Halo: Spartan Assault Releasing On Xbox One And Xbox 360
Posted on Tuesday, October 29 @ 07:04:59 PST by Alex_Osborn
Microsoft has just announced that Halo: Spartan Assault, the top-down twin-stick shooter formerly exclusive to Windows-powered devices, will be making its way to both Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
It will be released as a digital title this December for both platforms, and as of right now, the price still has yet to be announced. These upcoming console versions will bring several new additions into the fray, including a new enemy type: the Flood, online co-op support, new missions, and more.
For more on Halo: Spartan Assault, be sure to keep it locked to GameRevolution as we near its approaching launch on console.
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A marg a day won’t keep the doctor away.
Bethenny Frankel has had to shelve hard liquor — despite the Skinnygirl Margarita having helped launch the “Real Housewives of New York City” alum and entrepreneur into stardom.
“I stopped drinking hard alcohol,” Frankel, 52, said on the newest episode of the “People Every Day” podcast, citing “some medical issues.”
“I just drink the occasional wine,” said Frankel, who has hads uterine fibroid tumors removed and earlier this year had a health scare after consuming fish, to which she is “deathly allergic.”
Frankel told the podcast that she’s trying to get “to the bottom of some medical challenges I’ve experienced.”
Limiting her alcohol consumption to wine though has its own silver lining as Frankel gears up to launch Forever Young wine next year. She announced in June 2021 that she would once again work in alcoholic beverages.
News of Frankel’s pivot from the drink that made her a star comes as she tries to fan the flames of a rumored feud with herself and “Housewives” executive producer Andy Cohen. The “Watch What Happens Live” host reportedly said Frankel had been “trashing the show,” which is now the topic of her “‘Housewives’ recap podcast [’ReWives’].”
Frankel seemed to dispel rumors of beef with Cohen, though.
“I texted him when it came out, and he said, ‘Oh fun, I’m glad to see you embracing the ‘Housewives,’ which definitely is because I’ve said I’m glad that I’m not there, which I am, but they’re not mutually exclusive,” Frankel subsequently told “Today,” noting she and Cohen “totally are pals.”


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Amazon Prime Begins Delivering Purchases by Bicycle18 Dec, 2014 By: Erik Gruenwedel
Delivery service launches in Manhattan, N.Y., with additional big city rollouts planned in 2015
Need Breaking Bad: The Complete Series DVD for a Christmas gift as quickly as possible? Forget FedEx or drones.
Amazon Dec. 18 is going old school to deliver select purchases in one hour in large cities. The e-commerce behemoth is offering Prime members free delivery by bicycle messenger within two hours of order. Deliveries within one hour cost $7.99.
Called Prime Now, the delivery service bowed in Manhattan, N.Y. — ground zero for the bicycle messenger industry — offering 60-minute delivery on tens of thousands of daily essentials (or small orders) ordered through a mobile . Items delivered by bike include paper towels, packaged media, consumer electronics, shampoo, books, toys and batteries, among others.
The $99 Prime membership includes free two-day shipping on myriad orders, in addition to unlimited streaming of movies, TV shows and music.
The Prime Now app is available on iOS and Android devices. The delivery service is available from 6 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. A portion of Amazon’s new building on 34th Street in Manhattan will serve as a hub for delivery of Prime Now orders.
“Prime members in Manhattan are going to love this service and we cannot wait to roll out Prime Now to additional cities in 2015,” Dave Clark, SVP of worldwide operations, said in a statement.


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Berkshire Hathaway investors were baffled to discover that long time CEO of Berkshire and legendary investor, Warren Buffett didn’t even know what Bitcoin was until two weeks ago.
Berkshire Investors Demand Buffett To Invest In Bitcoin
Many Berkshire investors have been demanding Buffett to invest in Bitcoin given the unprecedented growth the cryptocurrency has seen in the past few months. In addition a frustrated “12 year-old” Robinhood investor, who has invested $5 dollars for a fractional Berkshire share, which has sense turned into $4.24 dollars, asked, “Hey so Bitcoin is pretty cool when are you gonna buy it?”
Historically, the Chinese market has been relatively isolated from international investors, but much is changing there now, making China virtually impossible for the diversified investor to ignore. Earlier this year, CNBC pointed to signs that Chinese regulators may start easing up on their scrutiny of companies after months of clamping down on tech firms. That Read More
Warren chuckled to himself and said “I’m going to be honest I didn’t even know what Bitcoin was until like two weeks ago, I mean I knew of it but I thought it was some type of game and the $60,000 price tag was some sort of in game currency, but I will never invest in anything I don’t understand which is why Berkshire will be opting to purchase millions of shares of obscure penny stocks hoping they moon for similar potential profit return.”
This article first appeared on The Stonk Market


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Few years back if somebody talked about e-commerce business in India, there were hardly any takers for this line of business. As of now, the country is experiencing multitude of options available on the internet to shop and bargain online. A new breed of e-business entities like FlipKart, SnapDeal, Jabong, YepMe and Amazon India are blooming online. With the advent of Smartphones and its availability at the lower end of the price ladder coupled with introduction of 3G is leading a revolution in the online sphere. Nobody could have thought of successfully running a shop online where they would offer items like Jewellery, Clothes and Footwear. But all these have become realty. The power of online business can be understood with leading stars like Shahrukh Khan, Aamir and Ranbir Kapoor endorsing online entities. The business rules have changed of late. There was a time when physical retailer faced little or less competition but now they have to tighten their belts and compete with the online stores. Within a few clicks on your laptop or taps on the smartphone, the customer is able to get the best price. This price is mostly often referred by the customer to the physical goods retailer and best price is arrived even offline. With e-commerce taking off, the profit margins are under pressure. The online stores are competing with each other and trying to grab major share of the online business by offering the goods at the lowest price. Future Group Sabse Sasta Teen Din kind of scheme which was launched to lure the customer to Big Bazaar outlet during the republic day has been replicated by online stores successfully. Special product launches are organized on the online portal like FlipKart and SnapDeal. The end result is the products getting sold before the launch itself. Within minutes all the available stock is booked. Flash sale have become a routine online. Chinese cellular phone maker Xiami tied up with leading e-tailer Flipkart and has successfully conducted flash sale on Tuesdays.
According to Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the hottest segment in the e-commerce space for India is the online travel. It has been the largest e-Commerce segment in terms of revenue generation. By 2016, it is expected that online retail will catch up with online travel. According to ASSOCHAM report, the e-commerce business in India valued at US$ 2.5 Bn in 2009 has touched US$ 16 billion in 2013. As per ASSOCHAM report titled ´Evolution of e-commerce in India´, if the current growth trend continues over the next few years, the size of the e-retail industry is poised to be 10 to 20 billion US$ by 2017-2020 and US$ 56 billion by 2023.
eCommerce or electronic commerce refer to transmission of funds or data online mainly internet owing to buying and selling of goods and services
eCommerce transactions can be B2B, B2C, C2C, C2B, B2B2C
Market size has grown to $2.3 billion from $600 million in just two years.
Likely to touch $32 Billion by 2020
Products sold online include lifestyle products, jewellery, furniture, groceries, apparel, shoes, baby care products, electronic products.
The customers in India were skeptical few years back about making an online payment. But in the last couple of years, the online payment module comprising Debit / Credit card and Net banking has become the norm for the customers. Now the customer is not hesitant to pay his utility bills and life insurance premium online. The Indian customer has now accepted mechanism through NEFT / RTGS as the most convenient way of fund transfer at a minimum cost. Indian customer mainly from the urban centres have started to use internet for booking travel / movie tickets, reserving a table in a restaurant, paying utility and credit card bills, consulting experts online and for buying/selling products online.
As the demographics in India points to a large population in the working age group, the potential of online business seems to be enormous. India is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country after China, with more than 1.2 billion population. The stakes are quite high both the physical and online retailer in India.Wikipedia figures indicate more than 50 per cent of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65 per cent below the age of 35 as of now. The average age of an Indian by 2020 will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan. So the demographics clearly points towards setting up shop in India both online and offline.
Internet Penetration & Smart Device Usage
The country has the world´s third largest internet user base of 243 millionas per 2014 figures available with InternetLiveStats. No doubt the internet spread is lower compared to countries like US, UK or France but the user base is multiplying at a faster pace.The internet users in India have grown at 14 per cent in one year adding 29,859,598 users as per InternetLiveStats. So far around 19.19 per cent of India´s population has got an internet connection.The spurt in Internet penetration in India has reduced the digital divide and is leading to providing a level playing field to business spread across the length and breadth of the country. Even a small time artisan sitting in a remote corner of the country is able to offer his creations to the world. The shipments of smart phones have doubled to 80 million in a year. The use of smartphones and tablets are on the rise giving way to exploring the potential of e-commerce in India. As per pwc report titled ´Ecommerce in India´, the transport and logistics sector of the economy are also gaining due to spurt in the e-commerce segment. India Post transacted business worth Rs280 crore in the cash-on-delivery (CoD) segment for firms such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon.
E-Commerce Enters Critical Phase
The e-commerce business has entered into a critical phase in India. The top three leading e-tailers in India like FlipKart, Snapdeal and Amazon are vying for customer´s attention through not only online email marketing but through TV ads on a scale never thought of before. The funding to many of the startups and the established players are making news. According to early data from Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and their valuations, the largest E-Commerce deal reported in Q1´15 was the $100 million fourth round raised by ShopClues.com led by Tiger Global. Tata Group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata in his personal capacity has invested in SnapDeal, Urban Ladder and PayTM. This investment shows the growing appetite of venture capitalist and HNI´s in the online sphere. Many of these e-tailers in India have entered billion dollar club in such a short time which took decades for traditional businesses to achieve in India. The new age e-commerce business is not only changing the way we shop but also creating billion dollar opportunities for our small and medium scale entrepreneurs to offer their quality product to the world. It´s just a matter of time when we will capture the attention of the world and goods from India reaching foreign shores will become the norm.
Indian customer has embraced the online world and is quick in placing order online through apps or the portal. As per the statistics available, majority of the customers are preferring cash on delivery (COD) amounting to around 75 per cent of the online e-commerce business. As per AIMAI, the Cash-on-delivery (COD) is one of the key growth drivers for the growth of online retail and is estimated to account nearly 50% online retail sales. This clearly points to two things, one is customer in India prefer cash transactions, secondly they don´t trust the In India, cash on delivery is the most preferred payment method as not everyone in India is comfortable with the Net banking, Debit/Credit card payments online.
The customers preferring COD needs to be educated towards shifting to other online payment mechanism for the e-commerce business growth in India. To achieve this financial and banking sector needs to come forward and impress upon their clientele about the safety and security of online transactions. The shift towards other payment options can put the e-commerce business in top gear in India.
Private Equity Funding
Softbankfocus is on mobile apps, app stores and mobile sectors. Softbank has invested in ScoopWhoop, Snapdeal and Housing.com
DST Global has invested heavily in FlipKart, India and internationally in biggies like Facebook, Airbnb, Spotify, Twitter, Alibaba, Xiaomi and Rocket Internet.
Tiger Global is a Hedge Fund who is active in the e-commerce space in India. The fund has already invested in e-commerce sites like Flipkart, Ola, ShopClues, LimeRoad, PolicyBazaar, GlassDoor, Myntra, CultureMachine, CaratLane, CommonFloor, CarTrade, Quikr and many more.
Many more such private equity players like Warburg Pincus, Google Capital, Kinnevik, Naspers and KKR are either eyeing to invest or in the process of investing in the growing e-commerce segment in India.
According to Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the e-Commerce market in India has registered an average growth of almost 35% since 2010. The e-commerce market was valued at Rs 53,301 Crore in December 2013. It grew at 53% through 2014 and touched Rs 81,525 Crore by the end of December 2014. The industry is estimated to grow further at a rate of 33% and cross Rs 1 lakh Crore by the end of 2015.
Tolexo.com The Rising Star
Tolexo is the recent entrant into the e-commerce b2b segment in India. Tolexo is from the IndiaMart group lead by the most enterprising, energetic and promising talent ´ Brijesh Agrawal. He is the one who had set up IndiaMart.com portal nineteen years back and provided a platform for both buyers and sellers to interact through the portal. As the e-commerce business in India is entering critical phase. Brijesh could identify the unexplored potential of e-commerce in the B2B space quite early. Tolexo is the end result of his thought and has started making waves in the online world of business goods and services segment. No one would have ever thought of selling a drill machine, testing and measuring instrument online like any other consumer and durable products. Tolexo is offering more than 500,000 products online mainly from the industrial category comprising products such as safety shoes, electric drills, heat guns & air blowers, CCTV cameras, automotive testing tools, concrete testing, domestic tool kit, access control system, detectors and sensors, helmets, work wear, gas detection system, hammers, clamps, benders, power tools, car and bike accessories and so many products.
According to Brijesh, the user feedback at Tolexo.com is quite encouraging. The first and foremost advantage to the customer is in terms of the cost. As the product is directly offered by the manufacturer to the customer through Tolexo, the margins are quite less compared to the goods purchased from the physical outlet. The second advantage is the availability of the product. Now the customers don´t have to hunt from shop to shop to find goods required. The customer has to simply login to Tolexo, identify the product, check the availability, place the order and wait for the consignment to be delivered through the effective supply chain of Tolexo. The commitment of Tolexo is another factor responsible for good customer experience. In case the product seems to be out of stock or the vendor is not position to supply in time, the backend team at Tolexo.com does the entire hunting job and ensures that within 24 hours the product is traced and queued up for delivery to the customer. In the process at the cost of customer satisfaction, Tolexo is willing to sacrifice its margin but wants to ensure a pleasant buying experience for the customer at large.
Brijesh Agrawal is quite optimistic of the portal deliverables twelve months down the line. He expects Tolexo.com to have more than 5 million products online for sale and enable 25,000 transactions a day. Tolexo strength lies in its huge database accumulated by parent company - Indiamart over the last two decades, e-commerce business experience of its core back end team and its effective supply chain management process and people.
Tolexo.com was launched in August 2014 with the aim to enable B2B buying / selling activities. Within such a short time, more than 1200 brands are listed on the portal and buyers from 900+ cities in India are transacting online at Tolexo. The products listed on Tolexo are handpicked by an expert backend team who conducts due diligence with regard to the reputation of the manufacturer. Only those manufacturers who are able to fulfill the required quality parameters of Tolexo are invited to showcase their products online. The online customer can have plethora of product options to compare with and decide on the best buy. The portal in no way tries to influence the buyer's decision, but aims to provide all the requisite information for the customer to choose the best product. The portal has partnered with Delhivery, Bluedart, Fedex and other important logistic providers to delivery ordered products in time. For Tolexo ensuring quality product and delivering in time is the essence of its business philosophy.
Brijesh highlights the larger potential of B2B e-commerce segment vis-à-vis the B2C segment in terms of revenue generation. Most of the B2B transactions are happening offline as of now. Based on certain industry reference and studies, he sees a potential of $300 billion in the B2B E-commerce space in India which is likely to touch $700 billion by 2020. The B2B e-commerce segment is not yet explored and Tolexo is the rising star in this promising category.


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Marni and its licensing partner, the Aramis and Designer Fragrances division of the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc., are preparing to launch the Italian fashion house’s first women’s fragrance in February. It has clearly been designed to appeal to a Marni consumer craving innovation.
“The perfume reflects Marni’s fashion, certainly,” said Consuelo Castiglioni, Marni’s creative director. “Because it’s a perfume that’s quite individual, that doesn’t evoke anything in particular. It’s for a woman who dresses for herself, who doesn’t follow trends but is sophisticated and also maybe a little eccentric.” That individuality also applies to the design of the flacon, which was inspired by an old bottle that Castiglioni discovered in a flea market 20 years ago. The shape of the bottle is a sharply different silhouette than is usually found in most fragrance flacons, more like a fashion design. “I wanted a bottle that was kind of traditional, that is, one that lasts over time, like the clothes we make, which last and you can still wear two or three years from now. It isn’t seasonal. I think this bottle reflects our concept — you want to keep it. It also has the dots, which are part of our world, and a play on proportions with the cap. These elements are also important in our fashion.”
Veronique Gabai-Pinsky, global brand president of Aramis and Designer Fragrances, BeautyBank and Idea Bank at Estée Lauder, said, “Marni is all about a very discrete confidence.” She pointed to the design of the fragrance’s outer box, which juxtaposes textured and vinyl surfaces, plus a combination of white and beige with red lettering. RELATED STORY: Marni Said Seeking Investor >>
To prepare for developing this product, Lauder conducted a consumer survey that revealed that the one thing users of designer fragrances want is innovation in the fragrance’s juice. To satisfy that desire, Castiglioni suggested a fragrance she had worked on years before as a fashion project with Givaudan perfumer Daniela Amdrier, which was unusual in that it eschewed the staples of most commercial scents — floral and fruity notes. It was a blend of spicy and woody notes, which Gabai-Pinsky praised but thought was a bit raw. Lauder added a dark, intense rose oil to inject voluptuousness. That effect was moderated with incense. “It’s very modern and bold,” Gabai-Pinsky said.
Marni’s design aesthetic dovetails with Lauder’s strategy of putting together a stable of designer fragrance brands — Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Ermenegildo Zegna, Tory Burch, Tommy Hilfiger and Coach — that “represent a higher-end proposition with an aspirational value.” She added, “We want to build scale for the long term.” Her aim is the sweet spot in the market, fragrances of 100 ml. that cost more than $100. That segment represents only 5 to 7 percent of the global business, but the category has shown the strongest growth over the last few years. The fragrance’s price points are true to this strategy. A 65-ml. eau de parfum will retail for $105 and a 120-ml. size will be priced $155. A 30-ml. size is being contemplated for later. One of the most eye-catching features of the line is the $50 purse spray, which comes with a fabric “Huggy” doll. The line is rounded out with 200-ml. body lotion, shower gel and body cream, also a deo-fragrance.
Gabai-Pinsky said her goal is to establish the brand with a new proposition of high-end design and take the time to connect with customers to establish a “very fruitful long-term relationship with every consumer.” Gabai-Pinsky declared that she is not interested in wide distribution, but rather a high level of sales with a very focused door count. The launch will involve only about 2,000 doors around the world in a universe of about 25,000, or 10 percent of the total. In the U.S., Saks Fifth Avenue will have a six-month exclusive and in other markets, retailers — department stores and perfumeries — will enjoy exclusives or very select arrangements, often consisting of flagships. The purpose is to provide more space and service than is usually given a fragrance on launch.
The battery of promotional weapons includes devices such as sampling and direct mailers, designed to reach out to consumers. The print ad, featuring model Raquel Zimmermann and photographed by Nick Knight, will appear in one magazine title, the global editions of Vogue around the world. That is another example of the intense focus of this project. Gabai-Pinsky did not break out figures, but industry sources estimate that the first year sales target for the launch is $25 million at retail, a figure that is expected to climb $50 million to $75 million within three years.
In yet another fashion show shuffle, @elleryland is moving its show in sync with the Paris couture calendar — though the brand is still keeping one foot on the city’s ready-to-wear schedule. Their runway show in January will coincide with the launch of a new strategy: designing two main collections each year instead of four, which will then be released in four drops. “As we all know, the system needs to change. We need to show sooner to give time back to artisans and designers to do what they do best — create,” said founder Kym Ellery. #wwdnews #wwdfashion (📷: @kukukuba)
@maxmara’s classic 101801 coat was the cornerstone of its pre-fall 2018 collection. The design team expanded the traditional double-breasted, kimono-sleeved style into a trapeze coat, lean belted styles and a peacoat and presented them in monochromatic looks – like the camel one pictured here. #wwdfashion #prefall18 (📷: George Chinsee)
The @cfda has shifted the dates of #NYFW, with Men’s showing on February 5 through February 7, and Women’s will directly follow, running from February 8 through 14. The preliminary schedule will be released on the CFDA’s web site in the next few days, but Mark Beckham, VP of marketing for the CFDA, revealed that @rafsimons will be back to close the men’s-specific part of the week with a show on February 7 #wwdfashion (📷: Kelly Taub)
@ferragamo is introducing a new space dedicated to the development of women’s and men’s leather good samples. The laboratory, which is created eco-friendly materials and designed to reduce the environmental impact of the manufacturing processes, will allow the company to expand its accessories offering through traditional artisanal approaches. #wwdfashion (📷: @aitorrosasphoto)
How does a “regular, degular, schmegular” girl from the Bronx, N.Y., become a Grammy-nominated artist with a certified platinum record in less than a year? Call it the @iamcardib come up. The 25-year-old has become a musical sensation, and the fashion world is taking note. “If I could describe her style I would say drama. She’s really into the dramatics,” says Cardi B’s stylist @kollincarter. See how Carter styles her bold and out there looks with the link in bio. #wwdfashion
“There is no formula. There is no guideline. I can watch Ted Talks all day, but there is no one who can advise me on exactly what it is I should be doing,” said @ronniefieg, CEO of @kith, in an interview with WWD’s @ariahughes at the brand’s new SoHo office in Manhattan. Head to WWD.com to see how Fieg went from hanging out in shoe stockrooms at 13 to building his own business. #wwdfashion (📷: @weston.wells)
@fearofgod and @maxfieldla have teamed up on a pop-up installation. The store, located in the gallery space across from Maxfield’s Melrose Ave location, is the site of the brand’s House of God pop-up in which Fear of God founder @jerrylorenzo has created a church-inspired installation. A dozen vintage church pews sit in front of an LED screen playing 90s gospel singers in an effort to re-create an environment akin to a Southern Baptist Church, Lorenzo explained. Read more about the pop-up on WWD.com #wwdfashion (📷: Jennifer Johnson)
Known for his sleek, sophisticated American glamour, Norman Norell is the subject of an upcoming exhibition at @fitnyc. “Norell: Dean of American Fashion,” which runs from February 9 through April 14, will feature approximately 100 ensembles and accessories. His best work is exemplified by the designer’s glittering “mermaid” gowns frosted with thousands of hand-sewn sequins – like the one pictured. (📷: William Helburn) #wwdfashion
For pre-fall 2018, @balmain didn’t let go of the glitz. A crystal embroidered baseball jacket priced at around $40,000 hangs in the “couture” section of the brand’s first men’s pre-collection. Sporting the words “Balmain Army” across the back, the item took around two months to make. “When it was completed, it was like Christmas, it was like, ‘It’s done, it’s exactly what I wanted,’” said Balmain’s creative director @olivier_rousteing during a tour of the collection in a Paris showroom on Monday. #wwdfashion


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According to Knight Frank property consultants, Bangkok outperformed other Asian cities for office rentals due to a better economic backdrop.
Prime office rental prices in Bangkok rose 9.6% year on year and 3.1% quarter on quarter, and this tops two years of prior growth.
It compares to the lowest performing markets that were Tokyo and Manila with a 1.1 per cent decline quarter on quarter. Tokyo was seen as coming off of a very high peak as supply increased and Manila’s decline comes on the back of 15 quarters of non stop growth, and so was not telling of a poor market by any means.
Although the general economic backdrop in Bangkok is not overly impressive, the services sector is growing fast and this in turn has pushed up the demand for prime office space in the Thai capital. Supply has also not been growing at previous paces and so rates have inevitably gone up.
Marcus Burtenshaw, executive director and head of commercial agency at Knight Frank was quoted as saying, “Looking ahead a supply side lag and a growing service sector mean that this climate of rising rents is likely to continue for some time to come”.
However it was not all a one-way trade. In return for higher rents tenants are becoming fussier and more demanding about what they get for their money.
Access to the BTS or MRT has always been a draw but now is more or less expected due to the higher rents required. Properties closer to stations are favoured as would be expected, with those that have a walking distance of less than 200 metres are able to increase rents faster than others. Other extras such as opulent office lobbies that are pleasing to the eye with high ceilings are also already priced in according to most tenants.
Extras that are being bargained for and that are becoming more and more a basic requirement on the part of tenants are better security, more natural light, and access to nearby or even in-the-building quality retail outlets, especially places such as coffee shops, restaurants and quality fast food outlets.
Another market posting growth was Hong Kong, where Mainland Chinese companies were creating demand for office space against a backdrop of still limited supply.
Factors that took a toll on the region as a whole included uncertainties from the U.S., Chinese capital controls and the possibility of more rises in interest rates in both the U.S. and Europe as well as some emerging markets.
Knight Frank expects 15 out of 20 cities that it focuses on in its index to post gains over the next 12 months, compared to just 12 previously.


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The Public Sector Pension Investment Board is entering a strategic alliance with a produce vendor.
According to the agreement, PSP Investments will manage the acquisition of Spanish citrus orchards while Citri & Co. will operate and manage the farmland, packing, distribution and sale of crops.
According to a press release, the alliance was brokered by PSP Investments as part of a strategy to add agricultural assets with high growth potential to its portfolio. “Citri & Co represents an ideal partner for PSP Investments in the European fresh produce sector, particularly given Spain’s status as the leading global producer and exporter of citrus fruit,” said Marc Drouin, senior managing director of real assets and global head of natural resources at PSP Investments.
In other news, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is investing in Orva, a full-service e-commerce platform specializing in the sale of footwear, apparel, accessories and home products. The brand, which originally operated as a chain of department stores, entered the online retail market in the 2000s.
The investment is the Ontario Teachers’ first in the growing e-commerce facilitator space. While the terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed, a press release noted the move is related to a strategy seeking to capitalize major retailing trends.
“We are particularly attracted to Orva given its track record of using data and merchandising expertise to drive incremental online sales for its top-tier brand partners,” said Kevin Mansfield, senior managing director for consumer and private capital at Ontario Teachers’.


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Cn: 4 detained in 360buy.com data leak and online thefts
Zhan Jie reports:
Four suspects have been detained for obtaining user information illegally from one of China’s largest e-commerce websites and stealing money from its user accounts, Xinhua News Agency reported today.
More than 2,000 customers of 360buy.com fell victim to the information leak and lost more than 30,000 yuan (US$4,785) in total, Beijing prosecutors said.[…]
The online theft is believed to be linked with two hacking incidents last December when CSDN.net, China’s largest website for software developers, and Tianya BBS, a popular social networking website, reported user information leaks.
Read more on Shanghai Daily.


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Furor Brewing Over Seagram Plan for More TV Liquor Ads
A large white dog put an end to nearly a half-century of abstinence by the liquor industry this June when it trotted across television screens with a bottle of whisky in its mouth.
The 30-second ad for Joseph E. Seagram & Sons broke a 48-year-old pact by distilled-spirits companies to forgo TV advertising. In doing so, it triggered a furious response from legislators, parents, and advocacy groups that only subsided when the ads stopped running a month later.
Now Seagram is restarting the ads, claiming a right to access all media. That decision, observers say, will be a boon to advertising agencies - but it could also spark a public backlash against televised liquor advertising that may spread to beer and wine.
"We feel we have the right to access electronic advertising, in a responsible way, in the same manner [as] beer and wine," says Seagram spokeswoman Bevin Grove, who adds that the spots will air after 9 p.m. "We have the ability to target the appropriate adult audience with our advertising."
In the June ad, aired on a Corpus Christi, Texas, station, a newspaper-carrying hunting dog identified as an "obedience school graduate" trots across a stage, followed by a second dog carrying Crown Royal whisky and identified as a "valedictorian."
"An ad in June? Graduation time? With a dog graduating? You've got to wonder who they're targeting," scoffs Sarah Kayson of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD).
According to 1994-95 figures from the National Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education, 60 percent of high school seniors drink alcohol. "The last thing in the world kids need is more encouragement to drink," Ms. Kayson says.
While Seagram won't comment on advertising plans, Advertising Age magazine has reported that the June commercial will be part of an expanded fall campaign that will air in Boston and Houston, and possibly in Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Chicago.
Fred Meister, president of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), insists that television advertising is the industry's right. "There has never been a federal prohibition of such advertising," he says. "In fact, the First Amendment protects this type of commercial speech."
Hard-liquor firms spend heavily in the cutthroat battle for market share. In the first six months of 1996, they shelled out $87.8 million to publicize their wares, according to Competitive Media Reporting. Despite the hefty spending, their sales have been sinking steadily over the past 15 years, a trend that might have prompted Seagram to break the voluntary ban that dates from 1948.
Though there's no documented history explaining the stricture, DISCUS public relations director Elizabeth Board says it began with radio in 1936, just after Prohibition. At the time, liquor distillers, grateful to have their licenses back and on shaky political ground, offered the olive branch of a voluntary ban on radio advertising. "When television came along," says Ms. Board, "they said, 'Oh, this is radio with pictures.' "
Times have changed, says Kayson of the NCADD. "Broadcast is the most powerful media we have; the less kids are exposed the better." While a ban on TV liquor advertising is not on the NCADD agenda, Kayson says a public backlash against youth-oriented advertising of all types of alcohol is a real possibility.
Kirk Davidson, a business professor at Maryland's Mount St. Mary's College, agrees. "It could mobilize all the anti-alcohol forces to the point where they could ban beer and wine advertising as well."
That might be part of the strategy. "Liquor is very disadvantaged compared with beer and wine," says Chuck Ross, media editor at Advertising Age. "If [Seagram] is able to get these ads accepted without backlash, they've leveled the playing field. If there is a backlash, they're hoping people in Washington would ban beer ads and there would again be a level playing field."
Seagram's Ms. Grove says public reaction has amounted to a "handful" of phone calls, but the rest of the industry is staying on the sidelines. "We have no current plans to advertise," says Carolyn Panzer, spokeswoman for United Distillers, home to Dewars and Johnny Walker scotch brands. "But we fully support Seagram's right to advertise in any media."
Mothers Against Drunk Driving is aware of the ads but is waiting to take a position. "We're worried about the spin they might put on academics and drinking, but we haven't seen the ads yet," says spokeswoman Betty Sparr.
US Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts has already established his stance, introducing legislation in June to ban hard-liquor advertising on radio and TV.
The bill fizzled, but Mr. Kennedy plans to send letters pressing Boston area broadcasters to reject the ads. "Alcohol remains the No. 1 drug of choice for teens," he says. "It's a shame that Seagram doesn't see the problem. They see the profit."
At Corpus Christi's KRIS-TV station, owner T. Frank Smith says that not only was Kennedy's proposal unconstitutional, but that most people don't care about liquor ads on TV.
"We ran a poll, got 6,000 people to call us," Mr. Smith recalls. "Seventy percent said it was OK to advertise hard liquor, just like beer and wine." Smith says he'll run Seagram ads again this fall. "Why is it wrong to advertise liquor," he asks, "when it's OK to sell it?"


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DCM’s Interview at radio station ‘Mayak’, 31 October 2014
Deputy Chief of Mission Mr. Sandeep Arya was interviewed at the radio station “Mayak” on 31 October 2014. The recording of interview is available at
Meeting with the Indian Business Community at the Embassy of India 16 October 2014
A meeting of members of the Indian Business Community was organized at the Indian Embassy on October 16, 2014. H E Mr P S Raghavan, Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation and H.E. Mr Sergey Cheremin, Minister and Head of the Department of External Relations and International Cooperation of the Moscow Government addressed the meeting.
Rostov region economic presentation at the Embassy of India, 15 October 2014
Government and business representatives of the Rostov region мейд a presentation at the Embassy of India on October 15, 2014 on business and investment opportunities in the region.
Ambassador attended 6th India Russia Business Dialogue, 14 October 2014
Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation H.E. Mr. P.S. Raghavan attended the plenary session of 6th India Russia Business Dialogue which was organized by Indian Business Alliance in association with the Business Council for Cooperation with India on October 14, 2014.
Independence Day Celebrations at Embassy of India, Moscow, 15 August 2014
The 68th Independence Day of India was celebrated today at the Embassy of India in Moscow. About 500 Indian citizens, people of Indian origin and Russian friends of India attended the event. The Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation, Mr. P.S. Raghavan, unfurled the Indian National Flag. Following the National Anthem, the Ambassador read out the Address to the Nation of the President of India and then briefly addressed the gathering.
India Tourism Participation at OTDYKH Leisure Fair, 16-19 September 2014
18 Indian travel companies participated in the OTDYKH (Leisure) International Trade Fair of Tourism and Travel at CROCUS EXPO Exhibition Centre in Moscow from 16-19 September 2014. India Tourism as well as Goa Tourism presented their stands at the Exhibition.
Russian edition of «Gandhi’s outstanding Leadership» released in Moscow
The Russian edition of ‘Gandhi’s Outstanding Leadership’ by Ambassador Pascal Alan Nazareth was released today at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, jointly by Director of the Institute, Academician Abdusalam Guseinov and Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation, H.E. P.S.Raghavan. Read more
Visit of Indian National Cadet Corps (NCC) delegation to Perm, Russian Federation, 18 August — 01 September 2014
An NCC delegation consisting of 2 officers and 25 cadets visited Perm Cadet School, Perm (Russia) from 18 August — 01 September 2014 as part of Youth Exchanges between India and the Russian Federation. The Indian cadets participated in the summer camp (approx. 50 km from Perm) with around 300 Russian cadets from Perm Cadet Corps. Read more
Бизнес-делегация высочайшего уровня из Гуджарата посетила Москву и Санкт-Петербург с 1 по 4 сентября 2014 года, чтоб изучить обоюдные способности для бизнеса и торговли меж Россией и Гуджаратом, также пригласить русские компаний на грядущий седьмой саммит Vibrant Gujarat-2015, который пройдет с 11 по 13 января 2015 года в городке Гандинагар, штат Гуджарат.


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We’ve used our international buying power to negotiate and bring our customers the absolute best prices.
Knoxville, Tenn. (PRWEB) November 21, 2011
Jewelry Television®, the nation’s largest shopping network dedicated exclusively to fine jewelry and gemstones, has announced its most spectacular holiday shopping event ever - Black Friday Week. The deals begin on Monday, Nov. 21 and emerge daily and hourly through Sunday, Nov. 27. To help make shopping easier, shoppers can plan purchases ahead to avoid possible sell outs.
“We decided to give holiday shoppers a Black Friday Week to remember,” said Randy Sadler, vice president of marketing at JTV. “The network is introducing three-tiered pricing for the event - our everyday low prices, Black Friday countdown week prices, Cyber Monday specials and doorbuster deals. JTV will feature jewelry in price ranges to fit everyone’s budget.”
Black Friday Week specials include a sterling silver pink sapphire heart pendant for $23.99, a sterling silver London blue topaz ring for $39.99, and a 0.5 Carot white diamond ring for $119.99. Colored diamonds, pearls, tanzanite, watches, and the latest jewelry fashion trends will also be among JTV’s featured items.
“We’ve used our international buying power to negotiate and bring our customers the absolute best prices,” Sadler said. “Customers can shop from the comfort of their living rooms and save up to 50 percent on fine jewelry and gemstones for everyone on their holiday list.”
Black Friday Week promotions will be available in limited quantities for limited times. Jewelry Television can be seen on AT&T channels 197 and 428, DIRECTV channels 71 and 313, Verizon FiOs channel 155, and Dish Network channels 86 and 227. For local listings, visit jtv.com/channelfinder.
About Jewelry Television®
Jewelry Television® (JTV) is the only broadcast shopping network that focuses exclusively on the sale of fine jewelry and gemstones. The privately-held company was founded in 1993 and broadcasts high definition programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to over 80 million unique households in the U.S. Jewelry Television® was recently ranked the 14th largest retailer of fine jewelry in the U.S. by National Jeweler. JTV.com is the fifth largest jewelry destination on the internet according to Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide for 2010. For more information, visit JTV.com.